Christie Pardons Two Men Caged For Possessing Firearms in NJ

To borrow a phrase from my cohost on iSDaily Thursday, Lou Sander, the Powdered Wigs have granted us some more freedumbs. The powdered wig in question is Chris Christie, the outgoing Governor of New Jersey. In his powdered wig benevolence, he has decided to pardon two men who had been arrested and found guilty of possessing self-defense tools that the state of New Jersey does not believe you, as a non-government individual, should be able to possess. New Jersey, by the way, is one of only two states that don’t allow the simple people to pump their own gas, just so you know the type of relationship that particular coercive association has with the people that are ostensibly the government (you know, that whole of the people, by the people, for the people mythology of Republicanism). So thanks powdered wig Christ, we appreciate your benevolence in freeing two men who were threatened with death and thrown in cages for possessing tools of self-defense that your nanny state deemed they were not worthy of possessing.

Christie granted 26 orders for clemency, almost all pardons, bringing his eight-year total of such actions to just 55. Among those granted relief were media consultant Brian Aitken and Marine Sgt. Hisashi Pompey, men who had been arrested and found guilty of criminal weapon possession even though they had clear records and owned guns legally bought outside the state.

Aiken, arrested in 2009 with two locked and unloaded handguns he had purchased legally in Colorado in the trunk of his car, had originally been sentenced to seven years in prison and released after four months following a commutation order from Christie in 2010. Aiken later wrote a book about his experience, subtitled, “How the Left’s War on Guns Cost Me My Son and My Freedom.”

Pompey, a veteran of two tours in Afghanistan, had a clean record prior to a 2011 encounter in which police found him with a handgun but no New Jersey carry permit. Facing three years in prison, Christie issued a commutation order last year just days before the serviceman was to report to jail.

Paul Gordon is the publisher and editor of iState.TV. He has published and edited newspapers, poetry magazines and online weekly magazines.
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